MUSKEGON -- Twenty-seven Cub Scouts from Pack 3219 spent the night on the USS Silversides SS-236, berthed in Muskegon outside the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum over the weekend.

Terry Falkowski, a tour guide from Muskegon who served in the U.S. Navy on an aircraft carrier, gave the Scouts a tour of the submarine.

“If it wasn’t for the Scouts, we wouldn’t be here,” Falkowski said. “Most of the visiting scouts come from outside Michigan, mostly from Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The Scouts get the opportunity to camp every weekend except Christmas and New Year's."

The overnight experience costs $35 per person, and the sub can sleep up to 72 people. The public can also reserve nights from April to October.

The USS Silversides came to Muskegon in 1986, from a group of investors who bought the sub and started the museum. The sub was commissioned in December 1941 and served until April 1946. It was declared a National Landmark in 1986.

Silversides sunk 30 Japanese vessels and damaged 14; she sunk more tonnage than any other surviving WWII submarine.